Glasgow gem unveils its £28m facelift

Sunday 9 July 2006 05.20 EDT
First published on Sunday 9 July 2006 05.20 EDT

Glasgow's Kelingrove Art Gallery and Museum will reopen on Tuesday after a three-year, £28m refurbishment, when it welcomes an expected 10,000 visitors.

Prominent Scots - including First Minister Jack McConnell, television performers Carol Smillie and Muriel Gray and actor Robbie Coltrane - have been gathering at previews and civic functions to inspect the new look. This week, after a ceremony hosted by Lord Provost Liz Cameron, it will be the turn of the public.

Before work started in 2003, Kelvingrove was the busiest museum outside London, with more than a million visitors a year. The Kelvingrove Refurbishment Appeal, led by Changing Rooms presenter Smillie, raised £12.3m for the Victorian institution. Now, high in the East Court, dozens of white glass-fibre heads, laughing, crying or gaping in astonishment, hang from the ceiling. In the West, a Spitfire of Glasgow's 602 Squadron swoops over a stuffed menagerie: a giraffe, a cheetah and a kangaroo. Light floods both chambers, drawing the eye up to the first-floor galleries, where Dutch masters and French Impressionists are on display. Glasgow council hopes the new-look museum will strengthen its bid for the 2014 Commonwealth Games.

Reaction to the makeover has been positive. 'During the previews, children were running from one room to the other to take it all in and I hope adults will have the same feeling,' says museum manager Anthony McReavy. 'The temporary exhibition space is key to the refurbishment. It means we will be able to attract major touring exhibitions to Glasgow that might otherwise only go to the likes of London or New York.'